Indian street artist DAKU brings one of his signature text-based shadow installations to Las Vegas for the Life is Beautiful Festival 2019, using a Shakespeare quote to ruminate on the passage of time. Placed upon on the facade of a former bookstore on Fremont Street, the piece reads “very slow for those who wait, very fast for those who are scared, very long for those who lament, very short for those who celebrate.”

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The installation is invisible at night, appearing in sharp italics as the sun rises and best viewed when it’s directly overhead. Created in collaboration with global creative house justkids, the piece is a continuation of DAKU’s “Time Changes Everything” series.

Previously, the artist has suspended text over pedestrian streets in Goa and spelled out a series of words on a building facade in the first dedicated public art district in India. Check out more of his work on Instagram @daku156.

You might not even notice there’s anything unusual about these shadows until you’re right up on them, wondering why in the world a mailbox looks like a grinning monster, fearing that somebody slipped you a psychedelic drug. There’s nothing wrong with your perception of the world. You’re just lucky enough to spot one of Damon Belanger’s shadow art creations in the wild, painted on urban surfaces all over Redwood City, California. Depending on the time of day, the shadows can be surprisingly convincing, catching passersby off guard.

A public bench becomes a cat, a bicycle has a mind of its own and a cartoon train scoots along the top of a fence. A fire hydrant sprouts a maze, and smiling flowers grow from the bases of bike racks. The work was created in partnership with the Redwood City Improvement Association, and though it may be simple, it’s sweet, and a fun way to liven up public spaces. You can see more on Belanger’s Instagram.

“The shadow art has allowed me to bring out a more whimsical side of my art and allows me to play with shadows,” Belanger told the Daily Journal. “The shadows give regular mundane objects a lively spirit so people can have a little fun in their everyday lives.”

Has doodling ever been more creative than this? While most people wouldn’t give a second’s thought to the shape an everyday object’s shadow casts upon adjacent surfaces, artist Vincent Bal looks at them and sees the beginnings of a character or scene. It might be a phone charger, a fallen leaf, a drinking glass or a Christmas ornament, but in its shadow, Bal sees far more than the object itself.

Each of Bal’s quick and clever illustrations is a testament to the creativity of an artist’s brain. Calling his work ‘shadowology,’ Bal plays around with silhouettes and light sources to find inspiration for sketches most people would never dream up. It takes the game of finding shapes in the clouds and applies an artist’s hand to the process, embellishing the shapes into something more.

Calling himself a ‘filmmaker and doodler and procrastinator from Belgium’, Bal shares his work on his popular Instagram account and sells prints on Etsy.

What looks like no more than an unweildy mass of Lego bricks stuck together into an abstract shape reveals itself to be not just one but two separate intricate shadow-casting designs. Artist John V. Muntean mounts his unusual sculptures on a special table to rotate them into just the right position in front of a spotlight so we can see what’s hidden within the positive and negative spaces created by the bricks.

The artist calls it a ‘magic angle sculpture,’ and it’s just the latest of an impressive collection he’s created over the past couple decades. This appears to be the first time he’s worked with Lego bricks, though – the rest are sculpted wood.

“As a scientist and artist, I am interested in how perception influences our theory of the universe,” says Muntean in his artist statement. “A Magic Angle Sculpture appears to be nothing more than an abstract wooden carving, skewered with a rod and mounted on a base. however, when lit from above and rotated at the magic angle (54.74 degrees) it will cast three alternating shadows. Every 120 degrees of rotation, the amorphous shadows evolve into independent forms. Our scientific interpretation of nature often depends upon our point of view. Perspective matters.”

Integrating the shadows cast by everything from stop signs to public benches into street art often requires the luck of seeing the piece in action at just the right time of day, when the shadow is in just the right spot for everything to line up as intended. Catching it in action feels like serendipity and adds a little bit of magic to ordinary urban settings. But in the case of this particular work of shadow art, you could literally stand in front of it all day and just watch it transform before your eyes. The lettering attached to the facade of a building in India’s Lodhi District changes its angle as the sun moves across the sky, acting like a sundial.

‘Time Changes Everything’ by Indian street artist Daku requires the sun’s harsh light in this location and the stark white facade of the building to even be visible to passersby, virtually disappearing on a cloudy day or at night. Get close to the wall and look up, however, and you’ll get a new perspective on the piece, viewing the words upside-down. The theme relates to the passage of time, with words including ‘age,’ ‘illusion,’ ‘season,’ aim’ and ‘memory.’ They start out in italics and then shift into prime legibility at noon before leaning in the other direction.

The installation is part of the first dedicated public art district in India, turning the neighborhood into a gallery that’s available to everyone. ST+ART India invited 25 local and international street artists to contribute to the project, which aims to make art accessible for wider audiences “while having a positive impact on society.” Check out more of Daku’s work on Instagram.